
Class _J£_iAMl 



Book 



7 ^ ^ 



A Reconstructive 
Policy in Mexico 

By M. C. HOLLAND 




Notable first meeting of Laborers under an old tree, at the beginning 
of the Revolution. 



Published by 

LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ASSOCIATION 

1400 Broadway, New York City 



r ' '•-'I 

■ 738 




A Reconstructive Policy in Mexico 

By M. C. HOLLAND 



The most important and promising- movement of modern times 
for securing the welfare of the majority of mankind is the Social- 
istic. All previous existing systems, including the religious and 
the commercial, have failed owing to the revulsion of mankind 
since the time of Plato against the exploitation of the masses. 
Socialism alone has proved an adequate instrument for convert- 
ing humanitarian theories into the hard metal of accomplished 
realities. 

The progressive efforts of the Socialists in Europe, the bril- 
liant showing they have made in New Zealand, and the agitation 
throughout South America towards shaking off the remnants of 
the feudal yoke, are phenomena on which the gaze of the world 
is riveted today. 

Among such phenomena, the Mexican Revolution stands out 
prominently ; and in spite of all the mantles with which Capital- 
ism has endeavored to cloak it, the Mexican agitation shows 
more and more definite Socialistic tendencies, which are of tre- 
mendous importance to every South American country, and no 
less vital to the North American people, who; in their turn, will 
have to solve the same problems that are now being worked out 
in Mexico, notwithstanding the superior material progress of the 
northern hemisphere. 



HOW LONG WILL THE REVOLUTION LAST? 

In Mexico, we have had inexorably to answer the call of civil 
war, which will last as long- as there is on the one side, a tend- 
ency to monopolize the riches of the land, to insist on privileges 
and concessions obtained through actual robbery of the rights 
of the people; and on the other side, the strivings of those who 
demand equality, justice, and education, and claim the right to 
comfort and contentment. Civil strife will cease only when the 
working classes, those who have no capital, secure their economic 
liberty by means of a political and social organization more in 
conformity with the pure moral principles that supposedly govern 
humanity. 

Our civil war, so long and bloody and painful, has clearly 
placed in evidence these conflicting aims and in like manner 
has also clearly defined the necessity for changing our social 
order, for transforming our systems of government, and for 
creating small property holdings as the bases of the economic 
liberation of our people, who then and then only will cease from 
being a vagrant mass without any exact notion of citizenship 
and without any power of resistance as a people. 



WHAT THE AIMS ARE. 

These are the high ideals that inspire the chiefs of the Mexi- 
can Revolution, and if until now it has been necessary to scatter, 
or even to annihilate, those who represent the tendencies of the 
privileged classes, it is very important that everybody should 
know what are, in the concrete, the first steps towards national 
reorganization which are now being taken firmly and seriously, 
in the most profound conviction that the Socialist state should 
be eBtablished. 'These are the control of public utilities without 
speculative aims and the creation of small interests by the re- 
apportionment among all the natives of land holdings and of the 
natural resources of the country, which will tend to establish the 
Mexican in a peaceful and happy home, and so ultimately make 
for the peace and happiness of the entire nation. 

We do not want a nation prepared to kill, like Germany, or 
ong organized mainly for material gain, like the United States 
of America. We want a nation prepared for happiness, the ideal 
toward which mankind has always striven. 



WRONG SYSTEM OF TAXATION. 

One of the greatest ills of the Latin-American countries con- 
sists in. the uneven methods of tax levying. The great lords of 
the land have always contrived to cheat the Exchequer by pay- 
ing almost nothing for taxes, placing all the burden of public 
administration on the unfortunate shoulders of the small landed 
proprietors and on the humbler business concerns in general. 

That is one of the most flagrant evils that the Mexican Revo- 
lution is rectifying. The First Chief, with keen perception and 
appreciation of the situation, is silently working with firm hand 
for the most minute investigation of all the properties in the 
Republic, reappraising them and imposing on each one the tax 
proportionate to its value. We find today that estates that were 
appraised under the old system at a value of twenty or thirty 
millions, have risen in valuation to five and even eight hundred 
millions. Pause and calculate how much better off the national 
treasury will be by the equal division of taxes! On this new 
basis, the small concerns will h^ve a chance to breathe, and 
the old Spanish system will be eliminated whereby minor busi- 
ness houses and the less prosperous citizens used to be the ones 
most iniquitously overburdened with taxation, while the influ- 
ential and opulent paid ridiculously small sums in comparison. 

This policy of the Revolutionary leaders is the first step 
towards the doctrine of the single tax. 



USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS. 

There is also another political change that every effort is be- 
ing made to bring into effect and which is of immense improtance 
to our people : that is, the genuine establishment of the Com- 
monalty Government. 

Up to the present, it has been the custom for the dictators 
to name a representative, entitled the "Jefe Politico," the Chief 
of Politics and Politicians — ^the odious instrument of all tyrants, 
through whom the public funds were concentrated in the coffers 
of the various States and of the Federation, where they served 
as a distraction for the hands through which they had to pass. 
In this manner, although the Government explored even the 
remotest corner of the Republic, nothing was ever left that 
would serve as an incentive to develop private initiative, since 



the only party who could be enriched was the "cacique" — the 
political "boss." Thus an atmosphere of discouragement and 
dejection prevailed amongst the citizens, who never bestirred 
themselves for the betterment of their districts because they knew 
too well that the money given would never be applied to its 
ostensible object. 

The First Chief, who, in the course of his political campaign, 
has passed through and visited every place, and knows fully 
every necessity of our people, is obsessed with the idea to in- 
stitute free independent municipal government in order to give 
the Mexicans, for the first time, the opportunity to augment the 
prosperity of their respective cities and towns, and thus en- 
courage personal initiative to develop, with the guarantee that 
there will be no more governmental exploitation. We feel sure 
that very soon in Mexico will come the rejuvenation of the beau- 
tiful cities that today lie in the drowsiness and lethargy pro- 
duced by the political tyranny and despotism to which they have 
been subjected in the past. And thus will be opened up a new 
horizon for the Mexican people, who for the first time will be 
able to live peacefully and contentedly in attractive cities 
equipped with all the modern hygienic improvements. 

There are other places in Mexico like Tuxpan which, owing 
to its vast supply of petroleum, is one of the richest spots on 
earth, but where, on account of the negligence of those who sold 
this source of national wealth, owing to the iniquitous centrali- 
zation of the public funds, there is to be found neither a water 
supply nor any k>id of sanitary service, and not even a single 
cart for the removal of rubbish and refuse. In thousands of 
beautiful spots in Mexico, richly dowered by Nature, the people 
drag out a miserable existence in the midst of the most back- 
ward conditions of sanitation, positively revolting to the natural 
habits of the race, all due to the centralization of political and 
economic power. 

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 

The Revolutionary party is fully alive to the situation, and the 
adoption of free municipal government, which is already being 
put into practice in almost every part of the Republic, will be 
the heroic remedy. In a little while the desired transformation 
will have taken place, and if this were the only work of the 
First Chief it would suffice to make him great among us. Being 



on the fair road to the democratic Socialistic state, we submit 
to the world the example of the organization of our federal tele- 
graphic service.. In spite of the Revolution, and with a thou- 
sand and one other difficulties to contend against, this service, 
still controlled by the government, has been improved and de- 
veloped to such a degree that to-day we have a magnificent sys- 
tem with very good service, at a price five or six times less than 
the telegraphic service of the United States, where many public 
utilities are exploited by companies which naturally seek to 
obtain enormous profits in order to partition dividends among 
the elect. 

We prefer to lower the tariffs for the service of the public 
instead of making money on this popular necessity. 

The wireless service has been improved to such an extent that 
we are able to make the assertion that the entire Republic is 
covered by stations that control the country in a far more effi- 
cient manner, proportionately, than the same service does in the 
United States. All this has been accomplished during the Revo- 
lution. 

In order more concisely to present a case typical of what the 
Revolutionary Government has accomplished towards the es- 
tablishment of the democratic Socialistic State, I am going to 
present in as few words as possible the experience of the Govern- 
ment in the State of Yucatan, where I spent six months re- 
cently studying matters with reference to the Revolution. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN YUCATAN. 

In Yucatan, the veritable Revolution arrived with General 
Alvarado. 

The State was formerly organized in such a manner that its 
entire wealth rested in the hands of two or three hundred indi- 
viduals, and the people, an indigenous mass of two hundred 
and fifty thousand souls, were herded together in abject slavery. 
On every plantation there was always a priest who exhorted 
the slaves to obey their master, the proprietor of the estate, 
and promised them the kingdom of heaven as their reward for 
such obedience. 

All at once the system of debts was abolished. This was the 
means by which the peon, the working man, had been held in 



subjection and fettered for life. This reform resulted in a new 
freedom for the working people. Liberated from debts, they 
could move about in search of better wages, and consequently, 
wages have been considerably increased. 

Next, the priests, who used to be on the plantations, were 
each supplanted by a school. It was absolutely necessary to 
suppress the Clericals, because it was impossible to make any 
progress in the work of reform while they insisted on using 
their religious influence to oppose and retard the best social re- 
forms which the Revolutionary leaders had planned and wanted 
to institute. 

The sale of alcoholic liquors was prohibited; cock-fights and 
bull-fights were forbidden, and in their stead a new impulse was 
given to games and sports such as baseball. In the most out- 
of-the-way town of Yucatan today, there is as much interest and 
eagerness about baseball as that displayed among players and 
spectators in the United States. 

There are about five hundred travelling libraries; public lec- 
tures are also given, besides which, a department in charge of 
public instruction has been organized with a pedagogue of re- 
nown as head. 

Regarding economics, it was necessary to maintain a very 
active campaign against the powerful American Trusts that were 
monopolizing the henequen industry, which constitutes the 
wealth of the State. With this aim in view, the trusts caused 
an investigation into the matter. A special investigation was 
made by the American Senate, during the course of which the 
justice of the Government of Yucatan was made patent. Just as 
Frederick the Great forcibly organized the feudal lords to make 
the rural treasuries the economic basis of the German States, 
so did General Alvarado compel the planters, by bringing strong 
official pressure to bear upon them, to organize co-operatively 
and to unite for the defence of the State. The results are now 
in evidence. Every one has been convinced of the iniquitous 
monopoly which the trusts carried on : and now, eight or ten 
million dollars in gold which these gentlemen used to pocket, 
pass into the purses of the henequen producers, with the result 
that the independence and stability of the national product are 
now assured. 

In order to fulfil one of the highest ideals of the Revolution— 
that is, the economic freedom of the peon — General Alvarado 



obtained the approval of the First Chief to the decree relating 
to the distribution of lands, and then formed an agrarian com- 
mission to have it put into practice. This law enacts that 
lands within the State, or communal lands, which might have 
been taken or stolen, will simply be confiscated and the rest 
will be expropriated according to their just value. These lands 
are being redistributed among those who want to work them 
at the rate of twenty hectares of uncultivated land to each head 
of a family, and ten hectares if the land is already in process of 
cultivation with henequen. The law lays down certain indis- 
pensable requirements in order to make sure that production 
shall increase, since it is not the intention of the State to take 
away lands from certain persons and to pass them over to others 
who would leave them unproductive. He who cannot or will 
not work must leave the land to another who is willing and able 
to do so. The solution of the agrarian problem is not merely a 
platonic scheme to the end that every one may have some land, 
but it is expressly stipulated that an increase in production must 
be shown. Consequently, this will tend to the prosperity of the 
people. Toward the accomplishment 6i this purpose the Gov- 
ernment is using every possible means. A Department oi Agri- 
culture has been organized with a foreign expert at its head, 
and with a plan of operation quite similar to that in vogue in 
the United States. There is an organization which takes cafe 
of the circulation of such propaganda as may tend to encourage 
the small cultivator in his efforts and to help him out of his 
difficulties. 

An Agricultural School has been organized and established 
and experimental stations are also being started. 

The. great problem regarding the working classes has been 
attacked in Yucatan with ample appreciation of cause, a law 
having been decreed which creates special tribunals for com- 
pulsory conciliation and arbitration. The State has been divided 
into five labor districts and the workmen have organized into 
labor unions. The tribunals consist of representatives of the 
laborers and the capitalists, and if a friendly settlement of the 
matter in question cannot be arrived at in the Council of Con- 
ciliation, the Tribunal of Arbitration gives its judgment on the 
case within a fixed time, and from the latter judgment there is 
no appeal. The Council of Conciliation takes the matter into 
consideration and has power to impose, for the term of one month 
only, and on trial, an arrangenient which shall have the force 



of an industrial agreement if none of the parties concerned en- 
ters protest within said period. The Tribunal of Arbitration 
has full power to study the books of the proprietors and go to 
the bottom of the matter in question in order to judge whether 
it be really possible to satisfy the demands of the laborers. 

Both the working classes and the capitalists are subject to 
fines if they do not comply with the terms of the industrial agree- 
ments. The purpose is to suppress strikes, which are injurious 
to all. Nevertheless the right to go on strike is recognized as 
the supreme measure to which industrial unions may have re- 
course. The law establishes measures regarding accidents and 
provides for the establishment of an insurance department to be 
controlled by the government in case private insurance agen- 
cies abuse this public necessity. Since this law has been put 
into force, the public worker has come to understand its justice 
and the authorities have not yet had to debate any difficulties 
between labor and capital, these seeming to adjust themselves 
automatically before the tribunals mentioned. Hence, the con- 
dition of the working man is automatically being improved with 
out any painful shocks. Besides, a reorganization of the Labor 
Department has taken place, and this now studies, in a general 
way, the conditions of the working people as well as the com- 
mercial prospects ; and it also compiles statistics. This is one 
of the most valuable and conclusive of the reforms that are be- 
ing effected in Yucatan and shows how, if efficient official power 
is energetic and well-guided, in a very short time the laborer 
gains materially both in an economic and social sense. 

With the finances of the State firmly assured, and with the 
people living and moving along firmer and more stable social 
bases, General Alvarado has launched farther in his trial of the 
Socialist state and will endeavor to control public utilities with- 
out speculative aims so as to apportion among the people the 
essentials for increasing their prosperity. 

A company has been organized with a million dollars to con- 
struct a railroad that will unite the State of Yucatan with the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, crossing the States of Campeche, Tab- 
asco and Chiapas. These regions are inconceivably rich. They 
abound in cattle and all kinds of fruits and hardwoods. Practi- 
cally speaking, these regions have been unexplored owing to 
lack of adequate means of communication. 

Yucatan will be a safe and reliable market for all ®f these pro- 
ducts and there will be no need of importing from abroad any 

IQ 



foodstuffs whatever, not even corn. At the same time, this rail- 
road will unite the peninsula with the capital of the Republic, 
which owing to motives of national importance, is absolutely- 
necessary. The other works which the company will undertake 
are : The introduction of petroleum into the State, construction 
of the Port of Progreso, and the installation of a line of steam- 
boats. Petroleum will cheapen manufacturing and will liberate 
for other industries, fifteen thousand men actually employed in 
timber-felling to such an extent that the country is being ruined 
through deforestation, and the climate is being injuriously af- 
fected. These men will then be so many more hands gained for 
more productive employment, with the result that public pros- 
perity will be greatly increased. Such laborers would be far more 
valuable than immigrants, since they are already acclimated. 
Besides, with the aid of cheap petroleum more extensive immi- 
gration will become possible and thus the day will not be far 
distant when orchards full of aromatic fruits and vegetables, 
with prosperous, flourishing ranches, will be more abundant. 
All these works are of immense social importance, since they 
tend to enable the people to gain their livelihood with smaller 
living expenses, and will also increase the productive capacity 
of the State. Thus benefits will be apportioned among all in 
conformity with the Agrarian Law and that of Labor, and an 
era of the greatest prosperity and happiness must ensue. The 
company is controlled by the government, which subscribes five 
per cent, of the capital, and the rest is subscribed by private in- 
dividuals. Its purpose, we repeat, is not ar business investment ; 
it is to open up new horizons to private initiative, and above 
all, to control those services of public utility for the benefit of all 
and not of a few concessionaires as was formerly the custom. 

In Yucatan it has been possible to advance more rapidly than 
elsewhere in Mexico in the work of reconstruction, thanks to the 
characteristic energy and spirit of General Alvarado and also 
to the circumstances that there they have had more peace and 
less fighting. But in other parts of the country also, experiments 
have been made in the line of the general plan traced out by the 
First Chief and consistent with the enthusiasm of the individuals 
actually. in charge. Naturally, it is not in all parts of the country 
that things are being well done, and we have to acknowledge 
that the true revolutionary spirit does not reign in the hearts 
of all the men who have been raised to eminence by the Revolu- 
tion. Nevertheless it can be easily understood that all of the 

11 



men who find themselves to-day invested with power and who 
have risen without any previous experience whatever, and the 
majority of whom indeed are ignorant of what national recon- 
struction signifies, are not entirely blamable. In every case the 
man of intellect will be held accountable. 

We must fain acknowledge that there are abuses and thefts 
of property belonging to the public, and we also admit that there 
are not a few whose only aim is to acquire great wealth rapidly ; 
but this is natural, and the history of this world proves that 
the same thing inevitably occurs. Revolutions do not trans- 
form men into angels. But the fact remains that the Socialistic 
ideal is incarnated in a directing majority and will not turn 
aside from carrying out its aims just because there happen to 
be some who are fools and others who are knaves. 

This is not mere phrase-making. Keen activity exists in 
Mexico for the solution pf the agrarian problem ; and the growth 
of the schools is such that to-day in some parts of^the country 
the teacher gains more than the minister, and all this will even- 
tually produce unfailing results. Equable taxation and free, 
municipalities will infallibly yield hopeful results in a very short 
time. 

The students of sociology of the entire world ponder over 
these facts coldly and dispassionately, and reklize that, apart 
from all false_ interests and passions, the Mexican problem 
points to one section more of mankind that has destroyed the 
feudal yoke — by means of bloodshed, it is true, but this is a de- 
tail — and is emerging into the fulness of the social and economic 
organization of a free and contented commonwealth. 

Every honest man, every man who does not have two moral 
codes, one private and the other public; every man who is op- 
posed to theft in private life must also be opposed to any 
strong nation that would try to plunder a weaker one, and 
must recognize the supreme justice of the efforts which these 
brave leaders are making to form a pathway for the people of 
their nation that will lead them to peace and contentment. 
Therefore, no one can approve of the conduct of the majority 
of those Americans who, in our country, plead for intervention 
in order to forward their individual schemes and interests. 

I do not make accusations lightly, since it is a well-known 
fact that the Americans resident in Mexico are in general Repub- 
licans with the desire for intervention. It is not so very long 

12 



since the entire American population in Tampico, made pub- 
lic confession that they had aided the Republicans with money, 
and urgently requested assurance and protection for the im- 
mense wealth in petroleum that they had obtained there from 
the former Mexican Government for nothing, and this when 
they were not in the slightest danger. 

Recently I was in Mexico City and went frequently to the 
American Club. There I was fully convinced how charged the 
atmosphere was with the desire for intervention. There they 
discussed barefacedly the schemes they had in mind, in like 
manner as the jackals doubtless take counsel together when they 
see their prospective prey in its agony. The United States of 
America will gain nothing whatever by intervention in Mexico, 
but will, on the contrary, paralyze, through perverted concep- 
tions of humanity, the Socialistic regeneration that is progress- 
ing there. On the other hand, it will certainly have great ad- 
vantages to gain when to the south there exists a civilized na- 
tion with perfect understanding and appreciation of the fellow- 
ship of nations. ^ 



13 



Does Mexico Interest You? 

Then you should read the following pamphlets: 



What the Catholic Church Has Done for Mexico, by Doctor 

Paganel 

The Agrarian Law of Yucatan 

The Labor Law of Yucatan 



International Labor Forum 

Intervene in Mexico, Not to Make, but to End War, urges 

Mr. Hearst, with reply by RoUand 

The President's Mexican Policy, by F. K. Lane 

The lleligious Question in Mexico 

A Reconstructive Policy in Mexico 

Manifest Destiny 



What of Mexico 

Speech of General Alvarado, 
Many Mexican Problems.... 



Charges Against the Diaz Administration. 

Carranza 

Stupenduous Issues 



Minister of the Catholic Cult. 

Star of Hope for Mexico 

Land Question in Mexico 



Open Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 111, 
How We Robbed Mexico in 1848, by Robert H. Howe. . . . . . 

What the Mexican Conference Really Means ' 

The Economic Future of Mexico 



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